Futuristic tools and weapons in action

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games is extrapolating today's bleeding-edge military technology well into the future, and the studio's co-founders showed off those features in a new developer diary today.

Advanced Warfare takes place 40 years from now, but according to Glen Schofield, general manager at Sledgehammer Games, the studio wanted the game's weapons and technology to feel grounded in today's reality. So Advanced Warfare includes items like a threat detection grenade, which reveals enemy locations; directed energy weapons, which fire laser beams; and a mobile barricade, which knows where the player wants to go and moves accordingly. Futuristic vehicles are also available, like hoverbikes and hovering tanks that can go on water and land.

The video also focused on the exoskeletons that soldiers will be wearing in Advanced Warfare's version of 2054. The suits will allow players to jump higher, move faster and be stronger than humans normally can. Sledgehammer is designing many of the exoskeletons' in-game actions to be context-sensitive, sometimes able to be activated with a single button press.

"This toolbox that the exo brings to you, as the player, redefines how you're going to play Call of Duty," said studio head Michael Condrey.